As I read my two devotionals this morning I was awakened to a reality which had not hit me until this now. The one devotional’s topic was Surrender. It had three subtopics for this larger one. They were: Surrender for Deliverance, Surrender for Devotion and Surrender for Death. Deliverance was about surrendering our will so we can be delivered from its attraction to evil. Devotion was about self so we can genuinely be devoted to living the life of Christ in us. The last, Death, is a matter of “being united with Jesus in the likeness of His death until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal to Him.”

As I was reading this passage in the devotional I was struck by the reality that today I am a new creation. I am no longer the man who is ashamed of the person God created. I have begun to know what self-love, self-appreciation and self-confidence is. So what hit me this morning is that today I can surrender not a defeated, abused believer; I can surrender a new creation! As this reality hit me I began to realize that it is the new creation for which the Holy Spirit resides. I was trying to have Him reside in the old self which was never going to be cleansed for Christ had replaced him with a new creation. Now that I have this firm belief grounded in me, I can surrender this new creation in these areas stated above: deliverance, devotion and death. I can grow into the truth where “nothing ever appeals to me that does not appeal to Christ Jesus”. This is one day at a time and I rejoice in this new Light as my journey continues.